Ida Kalenberg and her twin sister Emma were born in 1879 in Germany. Ida & Emma’s mother Sophie brought the twins and a 10 year old sibling Alaric from Germany on 13 Aug. 1881 aboard the ship – SS Oder. The twins were 2 1/2. The passenger list from the SS Oder clarifies the date and place of birth discrepancy existing between Ida’s death certficate and the 1920 Census of Yonkers. Either Ida did not realize her German ancestry or she kept it a secret. (Ida would have been about 35 at the beginning of WWI and 60 at the beginning of WWII. Ida came from a Lutheran background!

According to Jean, Grandmother Ida was for her time a “thoroughly modern woman”.
She smoked and rather than swimming in an acceptable bathing costume for her time, she chose to swim in a swimming suit that she put together. Grandmother Ida was a businesswoman who raised dogs (prize chows).

In 1946, funds from her business contributed to the seed money which purchased the City Island property. Ida died 15th Apr. 1952 in New Rochelle of a coronary occlusion due to arteriosclerosis heart disease. The interval listed between the onset of this and her death was 10 years.